Chapter 506: Revisiting The Past 1
“A lot has happened during your absence, Ryuk…” Asteralaxia said, clicking a button on her desk before she rose up to her feet, walking towards him.
Ryuk looked at her but then turned his gaze beneath his feet, as he watched the ground dip inside before something appeared from within, just like how the sofas were made to appear.
But they weren’t sofas this time.
Instead, what was there was a teleportation circle oozing with a green light that was present at the center of the room.
Ryuk rose to his feet upon seeing the teleporter, and when he did, the sofa he was sitting on went back into the ground.
“And I don’t think here’s the best place to catch up on that. So what do you say, we go to a more ‘homely’ place, hmm?” she asked as she climbed into the teleporter.
“You have a home?” he asked, as she rolled her eyes.
“Oh, please. Who doesn’t?” she replied sarcastically, but then, a dark figure soon also appeared on Ryuk’s shoulder.
“Well, he definitely doesn’t have a home,” Void said, as Aster giggled and Ryuk turned his gaze to it, watching as the cat snickered—only to get tapped on the head.
“Hey! What was that for!?”
“Shut it, Void,” Ryuk said, as Void snickered at him.
“What you gonna do about it, kid? I’m the boss here!” he said, almost trying to bootlick Aster, who rolled her eyes at it.
“You both are quite the duo.”
“Trust me, he just started acting like that ever since we got back to Endearth.”
“Something must have gotten into him.”
GIGGGGLLEEEE
“Hey!”
RIIIIPPPLLLEEEE
Immediately, dots of green light flared into the sky, and the trio disappeared from the room.
The instant they were gone, the teleporter sank back into the ground, as the lights in the room slowly dimmed, leaving only dim lighting present around.
______
“How do you find it?” The words echoed through the dimly lit room, close to an entire wall window where various skyscrapers could be seen, along with the zooming cars in the distance.
Neon lights could be seen everywhere, and sitting on a chair close to this window was none other than Ryuk, Void in his lap, as his hands gently brushed through its glistening dark fur.
“Nostalgic?” Ryuk replied with the first word that came to his mind, as he turned to look at Aster.
She had changed her dress from her uniform-looking attire to fluffy blue pyjamas.
She took the seat beside Ryuk, tapping on its armrest twice as a glass table appeared from the open space on the ground. She laid the tray onto it.
On it, there was a jug of wine and a jug of milk, and curiously, there were actually three cups instead of two, with one more of a bowl than a cup.
SNIIFF
SNIFF
The sound of sniffing rang out as Ryuk watched Void open one of its eyes, and its smile grew when it looked at the biggest cup on the tray, smiling starstruck.
Aster rolled her eyes at the cat as she poured the milk into the large bowl, and Void leapt toward its bowl, before instantly teleporting away, appearing on the bed at the side.
Lying down on its tummy, its tongue stuck out, and just like that, it began licking the milk.
“I expected it would drink more civilly with its exceptional intelligence…” Ryuk muttered under his breath as he looked at Void before shrugging his shoulders, turning to Aster, who held out a cup to him.
“Thank you,” he voiced out, as she took hers and took a long gulp, while Ryuk took a small sip before gently placing the cup back on the glass table.
“Want to go first, or should I?” He asked, as Aster placed down her cup, turning to look at Ryuk before responding.
“I’ll go first,” she said, as she inhaled a bit as if to get her breath, before she quietly began.
“After we entered the Ruin of Niagara, I was sent into a test ground.”
“It was a simple test—something about being able to draw runic inscriptions.”
“I’m already used to runic inscription from my vast experience, so I was able to finish it in just about a day or two.”
“I was given a card and was sent out. But when I got out, I didn’t see you.”
“I decided to wait, but after a week of waiting, my curiosity about what was happening outside got the better of me, and I decided to leave.”
“But I placed down a tracker on my own telecommunication device and placed another one in the sound, so that when you got out. You would be able to find where I was, and we would be together to flesh out the plan of ridding Enderath of the Knulls.”
“But I waited, and waited, and waited. Came back to the Ruin a couple of times.”
“I didn’t find you, and my card was still there, buried in the sand.”
“After three months of waiting and searching all over the place, it hit me that you perhaps…never came out of the Ruin.”
“I…” Aster said as she turned to look at Ryuk, who silently stared at her, and she paused in her words, exhaling a bit before continuing.
“When a person goes absent for close to three months within a Ruin—especially the same ruin that took another person just a day to get back out…”
“Then it’s safe to say that person is already dead,” Aster said as her hands gripped the cup, but Ryuk waved her off.
“It’s okay, Aster. You assumed I died, didn’t you?” he said, as Aster nodded.
“Yeah, I did.”
“But you didn’t lose hope that I was alive…” he completed, as she turned to him with eyes that asked How did you know?
“Well, you left the tracking device buried in the sand, even when you could have removed it, more than a couple of times.
The fact that that was still there showed you at least hoped I would come out one day, pick up the card, and track you down.”
“The card was your sign of hope,” he replied, as Aster’s eyes flashed.
“But don’t you feel… I don’t know… that I thought you died?”
“It’s fine. It’s not the first time I’ve come back only to realize the people I know already thought I was dead anyway,” Ryuk said with a shrug as Aster exhaled before she continued.
“A total of…”